'Of course I'm disappointed' – Ayr managing director hits out after £180,000 Gold Cup is bumped from ITV1 for Millwall v West Ham

Ayr managing director David Brown is refusing to hide his disappointment that the Ladbrokes-sponsored Gold Cup will not be shown on ITV1 this Saturday.

The £180,000 race will instead be broadcast on ITV3, when it will be part of a programme that runs from 12.45pm to 4pm, covering five contests at Ayr and four at Newbury.

At that time, the main ITV1 channel will be showing a Championship football match between Millwall and West Ham, followed by the James Bond film The Living Daylights.

"Of course I'm disappointed," Brown said on the eve of the track's three-day meeting, which has ITV coverage only on the final afternoon. "Why wouldn't I be? I'm disappointed for us and for Ladbrokes, it's only natural. I want racing to be on terrestrial television as much as possible.

"It's Scotland's biggest Flat meeting. The Gold Cup is a great betting race, it had a higher turnover than the St Leger last year.

"If you are a viewer of STV in Scotland, you are going to be watching Millwall versus West Ham on Saturday. It's not exactly a local game, is it?"

David Brown: "It's not exactly a local game, is it?"Credit: David Carr (racingpost.com/photos)

ITV pointed out that over the last two years it has shown more racing on its main channel than ever before, with more than 70 days again set to be broadcast on ITV1 and ITVX - nearly three-quarters of its total coverage.

The racing was set to be promoted in Wednesday evening's live broadcast of the Carabao Cup tie between Manchester United and Brighton and again during Saturday afternoon's football.

However, a burgeoning sports portfolio means that other race meetings may miss ITV1 coverage in November when the channel shows the new Nations Championship rugby union tournament.

Wherever the Gold Cup is broadcast, leading northern jockey Paul Mulrennan hopes to land an elusive first success on last month's Goodwood winner Flash Harry for Clive Cox.

"It's a great spare to get," he said. "I've never ridden him but he should go on the ground. It looks like it could be a bit of a slog up there and he won't mind that.

"This is one race that has eluded me, I've won the Bronze and Silver and I just need to win the Gold Cup. It's a very hard race to win, you've got the draw and the ground to worry about."

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